As Lawmakers Wind Down, Three Languishing Bills Prove A Point

May 06, 2014|Dan Haar

Among the more than 250 bills hanging on with fading hopes as the last day of the state legislative session dawns, three with significance to Connecticut business illustrate different ways a bill can hang on a cliff.

And all three help make the case that a legislature meeting for three or five months a year doesn't cut it.

The first, a bill that would allow social entrepreneurs to easily establish "benefit corporations," has not come to a vote in the House or the Senate despite having only minor opposition and broad, bipartisan sponsorship.

The bill would make it possible to incorporate "Type B" businesses explicitly for social benefits beyond just profits for the owners. On Jan. 14, I said the bill "seems like a lock to pass" after Gov. Dannel P. Malloy trekked downtown to the Pratt Street office of reSET, the Social Enterprise Trust, to declare his support after two tries fell short in 2012 and 2013.

The social enterprise bill passed through three committees by a total vote of 95-7. Yet its best hope now is a back-door route, sneaking in on the coattails of a broader bill. If it fails amid horse-trading and delay tactics, it would reflect the worst of the legislative process. The only controversy has been over whether to include a provision that locks in a social benefit incorporation irrevokably, something no other state has.

Either way, here's a measure that can help attract vibrant, innovative people to Connecticut's largest cities, which costs nothing and embraces a broader cultural change without requiring anything of anyone.

The second bill, so-called "Retirement for All," would allow employees of any company that doesn't have a retirement plan to participate in a public plan administered by the state treasurer, but not at a cost to taxpayers. The bill, favored by labor activists, would help solve a retirement savings crisis but could cut into the business of private financial services firms — and it could cost money for the state and employers to administer.

The bill's very existence ought to send a message to private firms that the state will step in sooner or later if they don't boost marketing to and services for families in the middle of the income scale and below, who still need to save. It's well meaning and the bill has gone through a bit of tweaking. But the legislature as of Tuesday night was running out of time for bills that are controversial, even if they're ready for a debate.

In a session that did manage to eke out a minimum wage increase and a $400 million tax-benefit package for United Technologies Corp., the Quagmire of the Year award goes to the effort to redefine and regulate hospital conversions from not-for-profit to for-profit ownership — a sweeping reform that will probably end up as worthless confetti in the halls of the state Capitol.

The hospital bill, actually several related bills, remained in negotiations even as Wednesday approached. Tenet Healthcare Corp., a publicly traded chain of 77 for-profit hospitals, originally wanted a change in the law allowing it to take over Waterbury, Bristol, Manchester Memorial and Rockville General hospitals. Then Tenet figured out it can do the change — or so it hopes — under existing laws adopted in 1997 and 2009.

Whether Tenet can do that is a legal debate that could dominate the 2014-15 fiscal year. Attorney General George Jepsen — who pushed lawmakers to vote on a true reform — is warning he'll be no pushover if Tenet attempts to use its affiliation with Yale New Haven Health System to meet Connecticut's tight restrictions on for-profit hospitals employing doctors.

Labor unions representing nurses, meanwhile, pushed ever harder for assurances that Tenet, or any other for-profit company seeking to buy Connecticut's not-for-profit hospitals, would maintain staffing, pay and services. And with moderate lawmakers caught in the middle, no agreement has happened.

Whatever side you're on, you have to agree this is ridiculous. If you need persuading that the part-time Connecticut legislature is ill-equipped to deal with sweeping reforms, consider this: On March 19, the day the legislature's public health committee held a 10 a.m. hearing on the hospital issue, some people did not have a chance to testify until after 1 a.m. — 15 hours later.

Any of these bills could still emerge although most of the hundreds will die.

The sausage factory closes for the year at midnight Wednesday, and I'd like to say it's about time considering the chaos. But the reality is that the helter-skelter paths of these three bills show that the $20 billion-a-year business we call Connecticut state government needs a legislature that meets at least a few days every month, 12 months a year.